The main building on Ellis Island

Between 1892 and 1954 17 million people passed through the Great Registry hall on Ellis Island - the ancestors of 100 million Americans alive today. 

Fiorello La Guardia, the thrice-elected popular mayor of NYC after whom the airport is named, worked as a translator on Ellis Island in the 1900s.

The island lay abandoned until 1984 and opened as a museum in 1990.

There are many interesting exhibitions and, despite no personal connection with the immigrants, it is moving to wander around the rooms of the building and read of the suffering the immigrants endured to reach the land of the free.

Allow half a day to see everything. Don't rush to get to the front of the queue for the ferry. Everyone gets on.

The Great Registry where anxious immigrants were processed for entry to America

Ellis Island